Pumpkin Massacre!
by Ster J
Summary: Baby Spock is anxious as Amanda carves his first Jack-o-lantern.


Title: Pumpkin Massacre!

Author: Ster Julie

Codes: TOS; Sa/Am, S; Halloween Mini Fic-a-thon

Rating: G

Summary: Baby Spock is anxious as Amanda carves his first jack-o-lantern.

—ooOoo—

"I've got a surprise for you!" Amanda sing-songed to her baby boy.

Young Spock looked up from his breakfast with expectation. He eyed the large orange object his mother held in her hands.

"Ball!" he said around a spoonful of cereal.

Amanda smiled and shook her head. "No, Baby," she corrected. "It's not a ball. It's round like a ball, but it's called a pumpkin. Can you say pump-kin?"

"Punkin!" Spock imitated as best could.

Amanda gently chucked her toddler under chin and smiled. "Close enough," she said.

Spock gazed at the pumpkin and back to his mother as he continued eating. Amanda watched in fascination as her son pondered the purpose of this large object. She took at pen and drew two round eyes and an oval nose on the pumpkin.

"Make a face, Baby," she ordered.

Spock enjoyed this game with his mother. He raised his brows and formed his mouth into a surprised O.

"Good one!" Amanda said as she added a round mouth and two slashes for eyebrows. She turned the pumpkin around for her son's opinion. "What do you think?" she asked.

Spock clapped his hands in delight at his mother's artistic talent.

But what Amanda did next to the pumpkin disturbed young Spock. Amanda took an awl which she poked into the pumpkin all along the outlines she had drawn. Next she took a large knife and stabbed the thing above the face she had drawn and cut a large hole in the top.

Spock had frozen in shock when his mother stabbed the poor thing in the eye with the stubby, pointed tool, but when she started to cut off the top of its head and scoop out its brains with her bare hands, little Spock began to wail. He held out his pudgy hands to the massacred creature.

Thinking that her son was crying in frustration because he had wanted to help her, Amanda moved the pumpkin closer to Spock and tried to have him pull out the seeds. Instead, Spock swatted her hands away.

"Bad Mama!" he scolded.

Spock had _never _said that to her, had _never_ struck his mother before.

Soon they were both crying.

Sarek entered the kitchen to investigate the stereophonic wailing.

"My wife?" he puzzled. "What has happened?"

Amanda tried to pull herself together to answer.

"Spock said I'm a bad mother!" she cried.

Sarek lifted a disconsolate Spock into his arms as he took in the scene— the sharp tools, the pumpkin, the drawing on the pumpkin, and the gooey innards of the pumpkin sitting next to it.

It didn't take a telepath to deduce what had happened, and the waves of horror and disappointment that was coming from Spock confirmed Sarek's suspicions.

"My wife," Sarek soothed, "when you drew features on that vegetable, Spock thought it had become a person. When you proceeded to cut it … "

" …He thought I had killed it!" Amanda finished. Her tears soon turned to laughter.

Sarek was concerned that his wife had become hysterical.

"He thought I was pulling out its brains!" Amanda chortled. She cupped Spock's baby cheek. "Oh, Baby," she cooed, "Mama didn't kill anything."

Spock pulled away from his mother's touch and buried his face against his father's shoulder.

"Oh, Sarek," Amanda pleaded, "please go explain it to him. I'll call you back when I'm finished in here."

Spock shot his mother an accusing look as Sarek carried him to the study for a heart to heart talk on illogical human customs.

After they had left the kitchen, Amanda made quick work of hollowing out the pumpkin, cleaning the large seeds and putting them to toast. Then she finished carving the pumpkin.

"It's safe!" Amanda called after cleaning up. She poured the lightly browned seeds into a bowl and set them next to the large vegetable which had caused her family such consternation.

"Look, Spock," Amanda said as she dimmed the lights. With a long taper she lit the candle sitting in the bottom of the pumpkin.

"Oh!" Spock exclaimed as he looked at the glowing Jack-o-lantern. His rapt features perfectly echoed the face Amanda had carved.

"So," Amanda said to her son, "am I still a bad mama?"

Young Spock shook his head. "Mama _good_ mama!" he exclaimed throwing his little arms around her neck. He looked back to the glowing pumpkin and repeated, "_Good_ Mama!"

END

Happy Halloweenie, Punkins!


End file.
